"The Daedalus has
just moved into orbit," Chuck announced, pulling Weir out of her
reverie.

"Hail them, please."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Colonel Caldwell,
we're glad to see you." Weir smiled, but her face was looking
drawn. They really needed to get this situation under control soon.

"Likewise, Dr Weir.
We've brought the help you wanted on board." Caldwell
sounded doubtful. "We'll beam them down now."

"Thank
you, Colonel."

There was a flash of
light in the gate room as two men were beamed in. Brown hair, green
eyes, well-built; Weir gave them good-looking, but two men weren't
exactly her idea of sending in the cavalry.

"Just two, Colonel?"

"Just two, Doctor. The SGC claims they are experts in the
matter."

Elizabeth started out
down the stairs to the gate room floor, a large welcoming smile
plastered on her face as she approached the men. Sheppard beat her
to them though, shaking the shorter-haired man's hand firmly and
introducing himself.

"Colonel John
Sheppard. We're glad to see you. Hopefully you can clear this
situation up for us."

"Dean Winchester, and
this is my brother, Sam. I hear there's some hunting to be had."

Weir had paused to
watch, just holding back on the grin that threatened at the sight
that Sheppard and Dean made together. Their slouching
comfortable-looking stances belied the tight hand shake and the stare
down as they summed each other up in the typical fashion of male
posturing. Sam didn't look too impressed with either of them,
instead taking in the gate room with wide thoughtful eyes.

Eventually the two men
backed down, nodding as if something had been worked out between them
and matching grins broke out on their faces.

"So what's the
problem? Everything's been classified. Drag us out on a damn
spaceship to another galaxy to hunt something and…" Dean paused.
"You know there's an alien on that ship?" He winced. "A
little grey naked alien."

"Clowns?" Sam
stared at a very uncomfortable-looking Sheppard in disbelief. "You
brought us here to fend off clowns? Why is it always clowns?" The
guy looked about ready to thunk his head onto the surface of the
table.

"We were told that
you had experience in these kinds of things," Weir stated,
diplomatically ignoring the thunk that his head made as it hit the
table.

Dean smiled
mischievously across at his brother. "Sammy loves clown, don't
you Sammy?"

OoooO

Sheppard led the way,
P90 at the ready. "We had it trapped in here last time. Bullets
don't seem to do much to it though."

Sam and Dean
nodded, grinning at each other briefly, high on the rush of a hunt
that just happened to be in another galaxy. Ronon and Teyla followed
behind them.

"I still do not
understand. I was led to believe that clowns were people dressed in
costume to entertain small children. Why, then, is this one so
dangerous?" Teyla's brows furrowed.

Dean turned around to
answer and ogle the Pegasus native. "Many spirits and demons take
on the form of something apparently harmless in order to do their
thing."

"To do their thing?"
Teyla raised an eyebrow.

"Look, let's kill
this thing and you can explain it later." Sheppard turned around,
tongue flicking out across his top lip, getting ready to swipe his
hand across the door control.

Dean had seen the man
wipe the sweat from his hands several times; though the Colonel hid
his nerves well, this thing obviously scared him.

OoooO

Sure enough, the
ugly-looking clown with sharp teeth had appeared immediately. It was
just as Sheppard had described, and, though it was hit with shotguns,
P90 fire and stunner blasts, the thing had just kept moving forward.
Eventually they'd retreated and resealed the door.

Dean had helpfully
offered to carry Teyla's weapon back for her, but Teyla had
respectfully declined, an amused look on her face.

"You know, she could
snap your neck without breaking a sweat," Sheppard murmured under
his breath.

"Yeah, but it would
be worth it," Dean shot back. Sam snorted and his brother punched
him in the arm.

Back in Weir's
office, they sat down to debrief and regroup. McKay and Weir joined
them.

"So, now that you've
seen it, what do you make of it?" Sheppard sprawled back in his
chair, one arm hooked over the backrest, the other tapping at his
chin.

Dean had copied Ronon's
lead and flipped his chair around so he could lean over the backrest
comfortably. "It's definitely solid enough, so not a spirit.
The bullets hit something; they just didn't seem to hurt it."

"Stunner doesn't
work either." Ronon seemed a little put out that his favourite
weapon wasn't working.

"Is there anything in
Dad's journal, Sam?" Dean leaned over toward his brother, who
was busily flipping through a worn-out journal.

"Not yet. I'm
still looking."

Elizabeth took a deep
breath. "So, any suggestions at this point are welcome."

Dean raised his
eyebrows and looked a little pained. "It could be a Boggart."

"Like in Harry
Potter?" Ronon looked up in interest.

"Yeah, where do you
think J.K. Rowling got the idea from? I heard she had one living in
her closet until someone managed to kill it."

"Since when do
Satedan warriors read Harry Potter?" Rodney's eyes had gone huge
as he stared at Ronon.

"One of the marines
leant it to me. I liked the dragons," Ronon said.

"Oh. Fair enough
then."

"But if it is indeed
a Boggart, should it not take on the image of a person's worst
fears?" Teyla asked.

"What? You've read
Harry Potter too?"

"Ronon has related
the story to me during evenings off world. He is very good at the
voices."

Rodney smacked himself
in the forehead. "I can't believe this."

"Okay, back to the
point at hand. If this thing is a Boggart, why would it look like a
clown and how can we kill it?" Elizabeth gave Rodney a piercing
look, before turning to see Sheppard slowly slouching down beneath
the table. She would have sworn the tips of his ears were turning
bright red.

Rodney snorted loudly,
but stopped short of saying whatever he was about to say when
Elizabeth fixed him with another look.

"Did not Sam
Winchester enter the room first this time?" Teyla raised an
eyebrow and fixed a look on Sam, whose ears also took on a slightly
red tinge as Dean sniggered.

Sam ignored his brother
and simply looked over at Sheppard. "Was it Steven King's IT?
That did it for me."

Sheppard managed to sit
up a little more and nodded seriously at Sam.

McKay looked over at
Sheppard. "I'm glad I didn't find that thing."

"Yeah,
I don't fancy chasing a Nobel-prize-winning version of Kavanagh
around the base either," Sheppard shot back.

"Ha ha, you
slay me with your wit, Colonel."

Sam cleared his throat.
"Okay then, so we go in again with someone else in the lead. That
should tell us if this thing is a Boggart. Then we can kill it.
Anyone got a copper knife? Does the trick, according to Dad's
journal here." Sam was scrutinizing a page in the journal.

"Yeah, because we get
copper knives in our requisitions from Earth all the time," Rodney
scoffed.

"Like this?" Ronon
pulled a knife out of his hair, handing it to Sam.

"That should work."

OoooO

This time, Ronon opened
the door and stepped in first, Sheppard and Teyla following close
behind, each ready with a knife.

Inside the room sat a
fluffy little creature that resembled a small puppy, but with more
legs. It made an adorable chirbling sound.

"It is very small!"
Teyla exclaimed.

"What is it?"
Sheppard asked.

Ronon froze in place.
"Kill it! Kill it now!" He pushed Sheppard out in front of him
since he was the one armed with the knife and the fluffy thing was
suddenly a clown again.

Sheppard took a deep
breath, gritted his teeth and lunged with the knife. The clown
screamed, thick black smog billowing from its mouth, before it
disappeared in a brilliant flash of light.

There was silence for a
moment, as Sheppard and the others stared at the place where the
clown had been standing.

"Well that was easy!"
Sheppard looked back at the grinning Winchester brothers. "What?"

"He's afraid of a cute little fluffy…" Dean
started.

"I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were
you," Ronon growled and the Winchester's paused for a moment
before setting back off down the corridor snickering.

"So, should we visit
the carnival when we get back? See some cute little clowns and…"

"Shut up, Dean!"
Sam smacked Dean in the chest, as they continued to bicker their way
down the corridor.

Sheppard gripped
Ronon's shoulder briefly. "It's all right, Ronon. I'm sure
the little fluffy thing was very dangerous," he dead-panned, before
looking at Teyla and beginning to laugh his deep belly laugh.

Ronon growled as he
walked on ahead.

O Fin O

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